April 27/09 10:54 am - Athens Twighlight Criterium

Posted by on 04/27/09

April 25th, Athens Georgia

The Athens Twilight Criterium race plan was executed so flawlessly that coming down the finishing straight to the line, Brooke Miller was sprinting against her own shadow. "Because we were racing under the street lights, I kept seeing my shadow," the reigning national criterium champion said. "I kept thinking someone was coming around me, so I kept going harder."

In reality, the lead-out had worked so well that Miller had a gap coming to the line, and took the win by several bike lengths.

"When things came back together in the final laps, we knew it was going to be a sprint finish," Miller explained. "On the last lap, we took control of the front, with Meredith (Miller) and Lauren (Tamayo) on the front. I was third wheel and Jo (Kiesanowski) was on my wheel sweeping."

Meredith Miller opened it up on the hill on the back stretch on Washington Street, heading toward turn three on the four-corner course. "This is when we were most vulnerable and no one was coming around us!" Miller said. "Meredith destroyed the field with her lead-out."

Brooke’s super lead-out specialist Tamayo took over between turns three and four, keeping the pace scorching. Tamayo swung wide out of turn four and dropped off Brooke Miller for the long, slightly downhill drag to the line. By design, Kiesanowski hesitated and let her sprinter open a gap. Only Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter Home) and Jen McCrae (Team Type 1), both previous Athens winners, were even able to come around Kiesanowski in pursuit of Miller, who took the comfortable win.

The New Zealander, coming off a strong performance at Sea Otter last weekend, held on for 4th place, while Tamayo kept rolling and took 6th.

Aggressive from the start

"The team put on a clinic (Saturday)," said team directeur sportif Jeff Corbett. "It was impressive to watch, and I enjoyed directing my first Athens on the women’s side."

"Our plan was to make everything count because we only had four of us in the race," Miller added. "We wanted to start aggressive, then sit back a bit, and then get aggressive again. The team raced flawlessly. It was so much fun!"

Brooke fired the first salvo of the race, barely half a lap in, when she went on the attack and stayed away for two laps. When she was corralled, the next six laps saw continuous attacks, with Tamayo and Meredith Miller keeping things under control. An attack by Tamayo on lap eight drew out Team Type 1’s Jacquelyn Crowell, and the duo stayed away for the better part of 20 laps.

"That put pressure on Colavita and some of the other teams to chase," Miller said. When they were caught, the attacks from Colavita and Team Type 1 came fast and furious. From that point, it was an exercise in control.

"We were all in the top 15 of the bunch the entire race," Miller said. "We shut down everything the last half of the race."

Those efforts set the stage for the sprint, and Team TIBCO executed a textbook lead-out for Brooke Miller, who showed how she earned her stars and stripes.